


The Cursed Prince and the Pauper/Soldier Boy

by 5ofSpades



Series: TFA short fills [6]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: A Classical Hero, A Cursed Prince, A Dead Tarkin, A Hux Missing Some Nails, A Stockholmed Ben Solo, A Terrible Wizard, A Young Soldier, Death, Fairy Tale Style, Family Fail, Gen, Illustrated, In a Galaxy Far Far Away, Justice, M/M, Mention of torture, Once Upon A Time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 04:13:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6550348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5ofSpades/pseuds/5ofSpades
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>TFA kinkmeme prompt:<br/>The Knights of Ren committed the Jedi Academy massacre, kidnapped Ben, and blamed the killing on him.<br/>Ben's dearest people believed them.</p><p>Fill:<br/>In Fairy Tale form, featuring Ben as a Cursed Prince, Hux as a Pauper/Soldier Boy, Snoke as an evil space wizard, and Rey as a Classical Hero.<br/>+<br/>Illustration</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cursed Prince and the Pauper/Soldier Boy

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [被诅咒的王子和穷孩子/小兵](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6604762) by [kiii17](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiii17/pseuds/kiii17)



> Original Prompt:  
> When Ben was a teenager, the Knights of Ren attacked the Jedi Academy on one of the occasions when Luke wasn't there. They slaughtered everyone in the building - except Ben. Him, they captured and took to Snoke. 
> 
> And Snoke made Ben observe the fallout of the Academy Massacre. 
> 
> Watch as Luke concluded that Ben was the one who had killed the students and joined the Dark Side. Watched as his parents - believed it. d. His parents and Luke grieved and compared him to Vader, talked about the Darkness that they 'always knew was inside of him', about how it was practically an inevitability that he would Fall - 
> 
> Ben watched. Watched, and tried to hope beyond hope that someone would rescue him. That someone would refuse to - to believe that he could DO those things. Because he wouldn't. He COULDN'T. And they - they knew that, right?
> 
> No one came for Ben. 
> 
> He didn't have anywhere to go, and Snoke was there, whispering in his ears that there was *nothing* wrong with him, that he was *perfect* just the way he was...
> 
> \+ The truth about the Academy Massacre is revealed in a suitably dramatic way.  
> \+ Various individuals feeling it like a punch to the gut when Kylo says that no one cared about the truth then, why do they want to know now?  
> \+ Rey reacting when Kylo talks about waiting for his family.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a cursed little Prince.

Oh, but a Pauper Boy asked, he was a Prince, even cursed, he must have had a better life than me, whose family fell from grace, who grew up in deprivation! Did this Prince and his fellows have to hide like rats? Did this Prince have to force down tasteless bricks for food every day? Did this Prince lose his mother and siblings to pestilence? Lose his father to obsession? Did this Prince spend most of his life drifting, never even seeing the sun?

Oh but you wouldn’t want to see the sun, Pauper Boy, said the narrator. You are so frail and pale, the sun would burn you right up.

Hmmph! The Pauper Boy sneered.

Ah, but where were we? Oh yes, we were talking about the Prince. Well he never did suffer any of these horrible things, but the Prince’s family had a dark, dark history. The Prince’s grandfather was a vile space wizard, who was born in miracle and expected to be a savior, but turned out to be a devil and corruptor instead. He had killed all he loved, and everything he touched turned to dust. He was, in summary, the universe’s great disappointment.

And the cursed Prince, why the cursed Prince had his grandfather’s temperment. And the magic that his grandfather had so ill-used, which ill-used his grandfather in turn, was so strong in the Prince, that they said the sky was split in fury, the plains flooded, and a thousand babes cried when the Prince was born. And so terrible and spoiled was he, for the fairest of Princesses and bravest of Rogues may not make the best of parents, that his elders shook their heads, his peers shunned him, even his noble Uncle did not know what to do with him, but to emphasize to him discipline and temperance, to no avail.

Ha, I bet this Prince was from the Republic! No discipline. No temperance. All chaos and no order. The Pauper Boy sneered some more. All in all, this Prince sounded like a rotten child. I’d be glad to never meet him.

 

*** ☆ ***

 

Anakin Skywalker was a hero of the Clone Wars. Ben Solo loved looking up his stories in secret.

Anakin Skywalker was a traitor and the lapdog of the dreadful Emperor. Ben Solo hated all the whispers behind his back.

*

Leia Organa loved her son. He was the future, he was hope. A happy and stable world for him was what she fought for.

Leia Organa feared her son. She recalled the past, she recalled despair. That man, that monster peeked through at her from behind her own boy’s angry eyes.

*

Ben Solo was strong. None of the other padawans would spar with him, not after that terrible lightsaber accident, even if the other boys had goaded Ben first.

Ben Solo was weak. The shrouded figures who called themselves the Knights of Ren overcame him as if he was still an untrained child. Ben knelt in the mud and screamed, water and snot running down his face, as the heavens poured down and washed away the blood.

 

*** ☆ ***

 

The Pauper Boy’s father and uncles weren’t always paupers. They were knights and lords once. And they would do anything, anything, to be knights and lords again. To feast on fine foods, dance at lavish parties, and be fattened upon the blood and sweat of the poor and weak.

So they pledged themselves to a great and horrible wizard. Their souls and children for their past glories.

The Pauper Boy cried, but his sharp and beautiful mother was dead, his brave and charming big brothers were dead, no one came to save him from his last remaining family member.

The wizard laughed and embraced all of his new children. They were perfect, as ingredients of his greatest spell, a spell that he would one day cast upon all the worlds.

 

*** ☆ ***

 

Useless... useless.

Failure… failure.

All their blood is on your hands… your hands… your hands. You were supposed to protect them.

*

Horrible… horrible.

Betrayer… betrayer.

All their blood is on his hands… his hands… his hands. He had too much Vader in him.

 

*** ☆ *** 

 

Years passed, and the Pauper Boy was turned into a Soldier Boy by his father, under the encouragement of the great wizard.

One day the Soldier Boy was given a task, to feed and guard the new Prisoner the magical Knights of Ren had brought in. The Prisoner had in possession a greater magic than all of the Knights combined. The wizard would like him for a new apprentice.

The Soldier Boy looked at the Prisoner’s messy hair, unfortunate ears, tear stained face, and puffy eyes that hid nothing and told everything, and was not impressed. But he was a soldier, and all soldiers must follow orders. So he brought the Prisoner his food and water. And because he couldn’t stand to see the Prisoner drip his snot onto the bread (Bread! Precious perishable white bread with fillings, only given as a reward to the cadets, now so freely given to this pathetic wretch, just because he had magic!), the Soldier Boy took out his kerchief (one of his few luxuries left from the life before) and told the Prisoner to wipe his face. And because he was given charge of the Prisoner, and the wizard would be horribly upset if his future apprentice caught sick and died, the Soldier Boy got some extra regulation blankets and stuffed them through the bars of the cell (The Prisoner complained about the blankets. They were too thin. They were too scratchy. The Soldier Boy was exasperated. Who did the Prisoner think he was, a delicate Princess?).

 

*** ☆ *** 

 

His mother once faced down a Grand Moff and spat in his face. His brave mother would surely come for him.

His father was quick and resourceful and well-connected. His clever father would surely come for him.

His uncle defeated evil and redeemed sinners. His saintly uncle would surely come for him.

 

*** ☆ *** 

 

The great wizard hung a magical mirror across the Prisoner’s cage, and showed him images of his family, showed the new name his old countrymen gave to him, Jedi Killer.

The Prisoner was inconsolable for days. Even offerings of rare horded candies from the Soldier Boy could not stop his tears.

Tears turned to screams, and sorrow turned to rage. The Soldier Boy wrapped the Prisoner’s bloodied knuckles in stripes of bandages, just like he was trained to do.

Screams turned hoarse, and rage petered out into despair. The Soldier Boy consoled his charge as he gently stroked the Prisoner’s dark hair: The common herd are stupid and easily swayed by their chaotic emotions and biased pre-conceptions, that’s why they are lesser, that’s why they must be ruled. Your Family will always fail you in the end, either by being disappointments, or by dying on you. You’d better learn how to rely on no one but yourself.

Yes, rely on yourself, trust no one, not even those hypocrites and betrayers who laid claim to the supposed Light, another voice, much older, much surer, whispered to the Prisoner, a voice in the dark.

 

*** ☆ *** 

 

No one came for Ben Solo. He was already as a dead man to them.

All those years holding back, trying so hard, making himself into what his family wished he was, every careful step worrying over trips and tumbles. And this, this was what they truly thought of him all along?

A monster who killed his friends (Obi-Wan was Anakin’s dearest friend). A murder who slaughtered children (Anakin purged the younglings). A creature of the dark who willing prostrated himself at the feet of evil (Darth Vader was the Emperor’s very right hand). Looked like everyone was expecting Ben Solo to walk in his grandfather’s footsteps all along, after all.

Why give him hope, when they were all expecting him to fall?

And the nightmares of death were slowly intermingled with nightmares of disappointed yet expectant faces. And the voice in the dark talked about passion, strength, power, and victory over self. Surely with all your past chains broken, young Ben Solo, you would no longer suffer this pain.

*

Ben shared a wedge of his bread with his jailer, one young Lieutenant Hux, as the Lieutenant gave him yet another piece of contraband candy, brought by smugglers to the Outer Rims straight from the sinfully decadent Core Worlds.

 

*** ☆ *** 

 

The day the Soldier Boy learned that his Prisoner (No, not his, the wizard’s Prisoner. He was just a simple Soldier, he owned nothing, not even his own life) was the cursed Prince, was also the day he was sent to greater duties.

The Prince watched, dull and apathetic, as the great wizard weaved the spell called ‘War’ to be cast upon the worlds.

 

*** ☆ *** 

 

At first Ben thought Hux was nothing but a programmed shrill, when the man repeated to him clearly rehearsed and rehashed lines about the evils of the New Republic, and how the First Order was the only institution that could be trusted to set things right.

Ben was surprised, when he realized the prison fare he was given was feast food for the young Lieutenant, who swallowed his saliva and made a valiant effort at chewing through his own hard ration bars.

Ben believed Hux, quite easily, when he described how his superior officer and mentor, Commodore Tarkin, a distant relative of one Wilhuff Tarkin, was humiliated and looked down upon by the New Republic senate during a diplomatic mission, and how some young senators’ aids had ‘accidentally’ poured their hot drinks all over Hux.

So when Hux, in the quiet of the night, confided in Ben of the humiliation the Hux family had suffered at New Republic hands, when he told of the embargo, of the epidemic that had swept through the old Imperial fleets which could have been cured, if only they had the resources, of dead family and a burning old hatred, Ben could not help but believe him, but sympathize.

*

Had Ben been of clear mind and less lonely, instead of grasping at any companionship offered in this near isolation, he would have said Hux was a brainwashed fanatic, a budding warmonger, and an egotist who saw people as tools and fools and things to be ruled by greater beings, greater beings like Hux.

But all Ben felt, after so long in the cage with Hux as his sole human company, his green eyes and red hair the only dashes of color in this monochromatic and dreary cell, was a horrible loneliness, when Hux was deployed with Commodore Tarkin’s ship, and his role replaced by silent droids.

*

When Hux came back, his face was gaunt, his frame even thinner, and his hands bandaged.

A minor mishap, Hux had said. Commodore Tarkin was dead, and Hux’s Captain was dead. Lieutenant Hux was Captain Hux now, so please feel free to congratulate him.

Ben saw not the shiny new rank insignias, but fists, pliers, a dim, damp storage room, and flashes of familiar orange flight uniforms. Of course. Of course his mother had lied to him about the true shape of her justice (Even General Organa could not control all her men)! Just look at how easily she had lied about her trust and love (Princess Leia still cried about her lost boy at night in the dark)!

*

Hux talked of the infamous Jedi Killer. Of the tales and atrocities associated with the Dark murderer and betrayer, all heard from the Resistance fighters who had temporarily captured (tortured) him.

They say he now led the Knights of Ren, and performed secret tasks in the Supreme Leader’s name. They say Luke Skywalker was so disappointed and ashamed, that he had fled the known worlds. They say the New Republic and Resistance alike had a hefty bounty on his head.

Ben soothed Hux’s fingernail-less hands with the Force, and scuffed at the fanciful tales. Ben howled into his new plush blankets brought by Hux, now given access to better accommodations befitting his new rank, and raged at the home he could not return to, not anymore.

No home, no home, no home anymore. No family, no family, no family anymore. The voice sing-song’ed in the dark.

But you do have one more family member who would still love you, dearest Ben Solo. Why you still have your grandfather, the great and powerful Darth Vader!

 

*** ☆ *** 

 

When the Soldier Boy was a boy no more, and was given many other Soldier Boys and Girls to command, the great wizard unveiled his proudest creation: the cursed Knight, twisted and transformed from the cursed Prince.

The Knight in black helm and black armor struck true terror into the hearts of the wizard’s enemies.

The Soldier completed a part of the wizard’s spell by feeding it his heart and soul along with stolen fire from the sun itself, and watched in awe and joy and fulfilled vengeance as its glorious red glow bisected the sky.

But just like in all tales set once upon a time, a hero rose up from the crowd. She slew the evil wizard, destroyed his spell, and captured the Knight and Soldier.

The people cheered, as they eagerly awaited the red hot slippers, the nail-lined barrows rolling down a hill, the toes and heels cut from the evil villains who had sullied their perfect kingdom.

 

*** ☆ *** 

 

“Sentence me as you will in your mockery of a court, but before I walk proudly to my death, I must tell you a little secret, General Organa,” said Hux, ex-General of the First Order.

“How unlike you, General, to willing divulge a secret to the Resistance, after your continued silence and non-cooperation,” Leia stared down the young man and sighed.

“Kylo Ren was never a perpetrator in the Jedi massacre. He was at first a victim, then a prisoner. As a trusted and devoted member of the First Order, I was assigned as his jailor, and secretly tasked by the Supreme Leader himself with gaining Kylo’s friendship and turning his opinions with more mundane means, while the Supreme Leader worked through the Force. Operation Knighthood was mostly successful, and Kylo Ren was integrated as a unique asset to the First Order. In this I must thank you, General Organa, and you, Master Skywalker, as well as the senate, and the foolish Republic, on how you’ve made our jobs so much easier.” Hux’s sallow face was devoid of emotion, as everyone else’s faces looked increasingly horrified.

“He waited for you, you know, for his family, for a miraculous rescue, for faith and trust,” Hux’s blank face broke into a vicious knife-sharp smile. “Too bad he found that faith and trust with the First Order instead.”

 

*** ☆ *** 

 

Do you love me? Asked the cursed Prince of the Pauper Boy.

Yes. Answered the Pauper Boy, who could not meet the Prince’s dark brown eyes with his own.

Then give us a kiss, a true love’s first kiss to break the spell.

 

*** ☆ *** 

 

Rey looked at the broadcast of her aunt and father, looked at Kylo Ren screaming in his padded cell, and wondered about the supposed wisdom of adults and fabled unconditional love of parents.

Rey looked on the screen at General Starkiller, who jerked once, twice, three times in the executioner’s chair, before becoming motionless after the syringe was pushed down, and looked back at Kylo Ren, who had suddenly fell silent and still as death, the tears rolling down his cheeks and splashing on the floor the only sound and movement in the cell.

 

*** ☆ *** 

 

So the Pauper Boy was cast into the gutters to die where he belonged. And the cursed Prince never had a hero or princess come along to break the spell.

The narrator shrugged. Oh well, their own fault, for being the villains of this story instead of heroes. The Hero here lived on to have two great loves, many daring adventures, and became much wiser than her forefathers.

  
  



End file.
